Neoclassical Art and Architecture

Question 1

Answer 1

Andrea Palladio, Villa Rotonda, near Vicenza, Italy, ca. 1550-1570

• has four identical facades, each one resembling a Roman temple with a columnar porch. In the center is a great dome covered rotunda modeled on the Pantheon
• chief architect of the Venetian Republic
• Palladio’s most famous villa
• built it for a retired monsignor

-located in a hilltop as a kind of belvedere
(beautiful view- view of the countryside or the sea)

-embodies all qualities of self-sufficiency and formal completeness

Question 2

Answer 2

Sir Christopher Wren, Saint Paul’s Cathedral, London, 1675-1710

• old Gothic church
• the great dome recalls Saint Peter’s in Rome
• remodel the building based on Roman structures
• built in remarkable speed (little more than 30 years)
• underwent constant refinement during contruction
• two foreground towers act as foils to the great dome

Question 3

Answer 3

Angelica Kauffman,

Cornelia Presenting her Children as her Treasures, or Mother of the Gracchi,

oil on canvas, ca. 1785

• 3’ 4 x 4’ 2”
• virtuous Roman mother who presented her children to a visitor as her jewels exemplifies the Enlightenment fascination with classical antiquity and classical art
• exemplum virtutis (example or mother of virtue)
• drawn from Greek and Roman history and literature
• she was born in Switzerland and founding member of British Royal Academy of Arts
• She clothed her actors in an Ancient Rome garb and posed them in a statuesque attitudes within Roman interiors.
• Cornelia reveals her character in the scene, which takes place after a visitor had shown off her fine jewelry and then insisted Cornelia to show hers. Instead of taking out her own precious adornments, Cornelia brought her sons forward preseneting them as her jewels.
• The architectural setting is severly Roman

Question 4

Answer 4

Jacques-Louis David, Oath of the Horatii,

oil on canvas, 1784

• 10’ 10’’ x 13’ 11”
• milestone painting
• paragon of Neoclassical style
• not only deal with narrative of patriotism and sacrifice but the painter employed formal devices to present the image with force and clarity
• davids painting shows the Horatii as they swear on the swords held high by their father to win or die for Rome, oblivous to the anguish and sorrow if the Horatii women
• The rigid, angular, and virile forms of the men ont he left effectively contrast with the soft curvilinear shaped on the distraught women on the right
• he was the leading Neoclassical painter in France
• championed the return to greek style and paiting of the heroic and patriotic subjects
• he believed paintings depicting noble events in the ancient history
• Oath of Horatii serve to instill patriotism and civic virtue in the public
• he believed that arts should contribute to the education of the public

Question 5

Answer 5

Jacques-Louis David, Death of Marat,

oil on canvas, 1793

5’ 5” x 4’ 2 1/2”

• David began to portray scened form French revolution
• David depicted the revolutionary Marat as a tragic martyr, stabbed to death in his bath. Although the painting displays severe Neoclassical spareness, its convincing realism conveys pain and outrage
• The painting commemorates the assassination that year of Jean-Paul Marat and influential writer and David’s friend
• presented the scene with directness and clarity
• the cold neutral space above Marat’s figure produces a chilling oppressiveness
• vivdly placed all narrative details in the foreground- knife, wound, blood, letter

Question 6

Answer 6

Jacques-Germain Soufflot, Panthéon, Paris,

1755-1792

• a testament to the Enlightenment admiration for Grece and Rome
• combines a portico based on an ancient Roman temple with a colonnaded dome and a Greek-cross plan
• although the whole effect inside and out is Roman, the structural principles employed were essentially Gothic

Question 7

Answer 7

Richard Boyle and William Kent, Chiswick House, near London, begun 1725

• emulated the simple symmetry and unadorned planes of the Palladian architectural style
• free variation on the theme of Palladio’s Villa Rotonda
• The exterior design provided a clear alternative tot the colorful splendor of Verasilles
• in its sumple symmetry, unadorned planes, right angles, and precise proportions, Chiswick looks very classical and rational.
• the interior design creates a luxurious Baroque foil to the stern symmetry of the exterior and the plan

Question 8

Answer 8

Jacques-Louis David, Coronation of Napoleon,

oil on canvas, 1805-1808

• the most grandiose work David produced for his new imperial patron
• David adhered to historical fact in depicting Napoleon’s coronation.
• he was able to portray those people who were present in the coronation (Napoleon, his wife Josephine, Pope Pius VII, seated behind Napoleon’s ministers; the retinues of the emperor and empress; a representative group of the clergy; and David himself, seated among the rows of spectators.
• he was able to impose upon the lavish pageant the structured composition central tot he Neoclassical style.
• David divided the painting to highlight polarities . The pope, prelates, and priests representing the Catholic Church on the right. The members of Napoleon’s imperial court on the left.
• The relationship between the state and church was one of the issues. Napoleon crowned himself

Question 9

Answer 9

Antonio Canova, Pauline Borghese as Venus,

marble, 1808

• Canova is Napoleon’s favorite sculptor.
• depicted the emperor’s sister (at her request) as the nude Roman goddess of love in a marble statue inspired by classical models
• sister portrayed as Venus goddess of love.
• she appears to be reclining on a divan and gracefully holding the golden apple
• Canova based his work on Greek statuary the sensuous pose and seminude body